The Baseball Trip Pt. 05

"Yeah."

"Just for a bit, anyway. Once she cools down..."

"If she cools down," I said.

"In the long run, everything will work out fine," Kelsey repeated, firmly. She gave me a knowing smile and all I could do was wonder how she could be so confident.

*

We got to Notre Dame around late afternoon. Julia's friend was already waiting for us at the parking lot. Julia had told me that the girl's name was Melissa, but she introduced herself as Mel. She was about mid-height - taller than Julia and Sarah but shorter than Kelsey - with raven-black hair, caramel skin, and thin brown eyes. I imagined she was probably at least part Asian. Though she had the same twangy, Midwestern accent Julia did.

I don't know that I've met anyone more bubbly or easygoing. Mel made everything seem like it was easy and exciting. Dragging bags up three flights of stairs? No problem! Five of us in one little dorm room? It'll be fun to have some company! It wasn't overstated - everything did not feel like a game show - but Mel just seemed up for about anything and it made the already sunny day seem at least ten percent brighter.

After we unloaded our things, Mel took us on a walking tour of the campus, passing the expected Touchdown Jesus and less expected, but equally exciting, First Down Moses. The campus was grassy and forested - pleasant, and not too empty considering it was now summer.

Sarah had her camera with her, as always, and I could tell that her heart was only kind of into it. Now that her boyfriend had agreed that she should follow her passion for photography, it had to be invigorating for her. But at the same time, I think the downer mood made it hard for Sarah to really engage with her subjects.

The four of us were so subdued, but Mel made up for it by making the most of the conversation.

"So how is the trip going?" she asked me.

"Fine."

"You guys have seen three games already?"

"Yup."

"You're really talkative."

"Sorry," I said. Mel smiled and squeezed my arm.

"Has it been this way the whole trip?"

"Sunny?"

"Quiet."

"Oh. Well... No. Not at all actually."

"I understand. You guys are probably worn out after all that traveling. Well don't you worry. I have something that will help you all really relax later."

*

We ate dinner in the standard college cafeteria and then decamped for Mel's standard college dorm. With most of the students off, it was fairly deserted. I only saw one other person on Mel's floor, a bearded dude who lived about four doors down from us.

Her room was beyond basic. Two small, aluminum-frame beds on either side with a tiny carpet in between them. The walls and floor were concrete. A green ND poster hung on one side.

Mel's roommate had already left for the summer, leaving only the one bed occupied. We'd agreed that Julia would share one side with Mel while Sarah and Kelsey could take the other together, leaving me the always luxurious open floor.

Mel wanted to go into town, maybe get some drinks, but team wet blanket was too tired.

"Can't we just, like, hang out here? Maybe play a game?" Kelsey asked. Mel smiled, wickedly.

"I think I can cook something up, yeah. But if we're doing the homebody thing I'd like to get comfortable first."

We took turns going over to the hall's common area bathrooms and getting dressed for bed. I was last to go and when I came back, I found four beautiful women waiting for me, all in sleepwear. They were sitting on the beds, watching some reality thing. The show was inane, but it was better than the uncomfortable silence I'd been listening to all day.

I'd really done it. Somehow I'd fucked (literally fucked) the whole trip up. No one was even talking, let alone fooling around. What a bust.

When Mel saw I'd come back, she stood up and switched off the TV. Then she went over to her desk drawer and revealed a deck of Uno cards.

"We're going to play Uno?" Julia asked, "Seriously?"

"No, we're gonna play Honesty Uno."

"What is..."

"We play Uno, but whoever wins gets to ask one question and the loser has to answer it. Honestly."

"So we're playing truth or dare," Sarah said, "Without the dare part?"

"No. Honesty. Uno," Mel said, "But first? We're gonna smoke."

"Pot? I don't know..." Julia said.

"Oh come on," Mel said, "Don't act like this is a new thing for you. Besides, you guys are all so worked over from the driving - you really need a way to let go."

"I've never tried it," Kelsey said, "I guess it's just another thing to, like, get out of the way before I go to college. Who knew this trip would be so instrumental to my academic growth?"

"Whenever I smoke these days I get really sleepy," Julia said.

"Not me," Sarah said, "I get kind of... I'm not sure how to put it."

"Weed makes me really super horny," Mel said.

"Yeah," Sarah said, "That."

*

Mel had a stash under her bed. I was surprised to see it, but not exactly shocked. As she packed the first bowl, I realized that Mel was really pretty. Certainly her exotic appearance - the epithelial eyes, dark hair, wide jaw - helped. She had a nice body, too. All her parts so pert and perky. But a lot of it was just her sunny personality. I think if Mel had been a dark cloud, I would never have seen her in that oh so fuckable light.

The room itself, however, was dark. Curtains down, lights off. The barest brightness came from under the front door for all of us to see by. Mel put on some background music, but I could hardly hear it. We all sat on the floor in our best approximation of a circle, legs crossed. I was wearing a pair of long flannel pj pants and a Tigers shirsey I'd bought when we stopped in Detroit.

Kelsey sat to my left, wearing a cute pink t-shirt with a bunny rabbit on it that said 'hop til you drop' and a matching pair of pink shorts. Her bare long legs leaked alluringly out into the center of our circle. Sarah was sitting next to Kelsey. She looked ready for a night in the snowy mountains or an evening with the Amish - a long flannel, button down shirt and matching long pants. She was even wearing little plaid slippers.

That put Julia more or less straight across from me. She was basically in the mirror of my outfit, only hers was a Cubs shirsey. Also it turned out that 'ready for bed' still meant wearing a ponytail and glasses. Finally, Mel was to my right. She wore a purple lacy thing with strappy shoulders that drifted down below her bottom, like a little dress - the closest outfit to lingerie that any of the women had on. Her browned thighs looked even darker in contrast to Kelsey's pink pegs.

Mel dealt clockwise and handed the pipe in the other direction - after taking a hit for herself, of course. The cards came faster than the pot did, but soon we were all nice and toasty. We started off just playing straight up Uno, to get everyone a chance to remember the rules, but also to make sure we were at least floating by the time the game was really going.

I'd played as a kid, of course, but the way Mel set it up was way more competitive. Each card was worth a number of points. When someone went out by playing their final card, everything in your hand was totaled up. Like golf, the high score was the big loser of the round.

"How fair is this going to be?" Kelsey asked, "All us girls and one boy?"

"I'm sure we'll find a way to make it interesting," Mel said, and gave me an exaggerated wink.

"What's the word for when a group is all women?" Sarah asked, "I know with boys it's a sausage fest but what if it's all girls?"

"I'd heard clam bake," Julia said.

"I prefer donut shop," I said.

"That's much sweeter," Kelsey agreed.

Once we'd played a few games for fun, and Mel was packing a second pipe, she announced that it was time to play 'for realz' and dealt out the first hand. Mel clearly had the upper hand in the early going - apparently this was a pretty common thing to get together and play. As a freshman I'd gotten into Magic and before that, Pokemon, but I'd never seen a bunch of college kids get together for some high stakes Uno matches. And what was higher stakes than telling the truth?

Mel started out wild with the cards, but was careful on the questions. I lost the first game to her and she asked me if I wore boxers or briefs. I told her boxers. I noticed that all three of my car-mates almost jumped out and said it for me.

Mel won the next hand as well, but this time Julia had to answer.

"What's your bra size?" Mel asked. Julia responded with a dirty look. The only person here who knew Julia better than me was Mel - she knew exactly what she was getting into.

"A," Julia finally said, punctuating it with a raspberry.

"I'd give them an A+, personally," I said. The room suddenly went silent. Everyone turned to look at me.

"Did I say that out loud?"

Everyone started to laugh and I felt the tension loosen. In fact, everyone seemed rather warm all the way around. I'd thought that this kind of game would only make people tighten up, remembering all the things they were angry about. Instead, we almost felt like friends again.

"Sorry Jules," I said.

"I thought it was sweet," Mel said. That earned her another raspberry from her old friend, but by then the next hand had been dealt.

Mel won (again) and this time it was Sarah's turn.

"Sarah, how many men have you been with?" Mel asked.

"You mean, like, intercourse?"

"What is it with you and 'intercourse?'" I asked.

"Fine, do you mean how many men have I fucked?" She accented the word fuck to try to make it as vulgar as possible, but all it did was turn me on. My poor pecker, dormant all day, twitched a bit in his slumber.

"Yes," Mel said.

"One."

"Wow, girl, we have got to get you out more often," Mel said.

"We've been trying to widen her horizons," I said. That earned me a little kick from across the circle, but Sarah was smiling while she did it.

I'd forgotten about Sarah's daily cycle - how she'd start out cold and distant, guilty about whatever she'd done with me the night before. But then, as the moon rose, so did the sexy brunette's libido. I'd given up on such things, since Sarah'd supposedly worked things out with her boyfriend. But maybe I'd been giving her too much (or is that too little) credit?

Next hand and, guess what? Mel took it. She had this little trick where she'd hold on to her monster cards and then just throw them out all at once to close out the game. Suddenly you'd go from having three cards to ten and her hand would be empty. It felt like we ought to have been able to trap her, but she escaped every time.

Kelsey lost this time and I could see her starting to shy away as Mel constructed her question. Now that the room had been properly prepped, it was likely that Mel would start upping the stakes and Kelsey could clearly see it coming. Prudish Q&A with cards fizzles out far too fast.

"What's going on with you and Ben?" Mel asked.

"That's..." Kelsey started then stalled.

"That's not a fair question," Sarah said, "You can't be so... open ended like that."

"I thought this was my game," Mel said, then smiled warmly, "In that case, Kelsey... Are you and Ben dating?"

"No," Kelsey said, but she did it sort of shyly, like she was worried about the reaction. I gave her a wide grin to let her know she was OK. She was right, we weren't a couple. Just a couple of horny idiots doing each other silly up and down the I-80.

Regardless, my feelings weren't hurt. Though I did think it was sweet of her to think of me.

"Are you seeing anyone else?" Mel asked.

"No fair! Only one question at a time," Kelsey said.

"Rats."

"But for the record Kelsey's single."

"Sarah!"

"What? It was going to get out at some point. Might as well move on from it now."

"Fine. Whatever. Just you wait," Kelsey said, only really mock hurt. Whatever threats Kelsey was intending to fulfill were put on hold, however. She lost the next game, and this time Mel decided to push things further.

"Favorite position?" she asked. The room sort of gasped, in a playful way.

"See?" Sarah said, "Good thing we got the boyfriend thing out of the way."

"Well..." Kelsey said, her voice got quieter with every word she spoke, "I've only done it the one time so I'd have to say I really like it when the guy's like behind you and..."

"You mean doggie?" Mel asked.

"Yeah. That," Kelsey kind of whispered the last word, but she may as well have shouted it.

"Nice!" Mel told her and gave her a high five, "That's my favorite, too."

Now all eyes were on her.

"What?" the pretty dark-haired girl laughed. "Whatever. It's only gonna get worse from here. And by worse I mean way, way better."

The next hand, finally, Sarah managed to sneak out a win. Even better, Mel held the most points, meaning it was her turn to be put to the fire. Sarah seemed to sense the weight of the moment. She leaned back against the bed and smiled, savoring the opportunity.

"How many men have you been with?" she asked.

"You mean intercourse?" Mel asked.

"Coitus."

"Copulation."

"The beast with two backs."

"Ew, Ben," Kelsey whined, "That's gross. You're such a boy."

"Exactly how you like me."

"I've been with roughly three to five men," Mel said, making a big show of looking academic as she said it.

"Come on, that's a cop out," Kelsey said.

"Yeah dude, come on," Julia said.

"Fine. Six guys. Two in high school. Four in college."

"How many women?" Julia asked, smirking. Mel grinned back.

"One question at a time, remember?"

Dammit. Stupid Honesty Uno with its stupid rules.

Once Sarah had broken through, the winning spread out and the questions got raunchier and raunchier.

We (eventually) learned that Mel had also had intercourse (or some form of encounter that could in some way be called intercourse) with three women, all in college. So that meant no late night rendezvous with my roommate and her high school friend, the lovely Julia. That was a disappointing ending on par with the Lost finale, let me tell you.

We found out that Sarah's favorite position was missionary (shocker), that I liked reverse cowgirl (I said it mostly for shock value, but instead everyone seemed interested), that, yes, Julia had once kissed a girl, drunk, at a frat party freshman year, and that Kelsey had never even considered such a thing (but certainly seemed willing to try).

Lastly, we confirmed for the group that Kelsey and I were at least friends with benefits, that Sarah and I were just friends who happened to have done some dirty stuff, and Julia and I were just friends. With neither of us willing to admit to that morning's encounter.

All of this dirty talking led to three things:

First, like Lazarus returned, I had a raging boner that my pajama pants could do absolutely nothing to hide. Mel was the first to notice and, being Mel, announced it to the group.

"Holy crap, man, what exactly are you packing down there?"

I did my best to blush and kind of cross my legs, but that big boy wasn't going anywhere.

"Well now I know why everyone is so 'open' on this trip," Mel said

Second, whether it was the pot (we were on bowl three), the final admission of what had been going on in our car this whole time, or just the way the questions forced everyone to be open, the group finally relaxed and just let things flow. For the first time all day, I felt happy to be surrounded by this group of wonderful women and hopeful for what it all might lead to.

Finally, everyone was getting worked up (I definitely saw some dark spots peeking out from the crotches of certain women's pj pants) and no subject seemed out of bounds. The cards seemed to be played less and less as people just kept asking questions, then follow up questions, then follow ups to the follow ups. Thus Honesty Uno eventually degraded into plain old Honesty.

"So it's been like, just one rolling orgy this whole trip?" Mel asked.

"Not exactly an orgy..." Sarah said.

"It's not like we're all doing things with each other at the same time," Kelsey said.

"Except for that one time in the hot tub," Sarah said.

"Oh my god!" Julia said, and buried her face in her hands.

"I guess we forgot to mention that one when we told you everything this morning."

"Wait," Mel held up her hand as a stop signal, "Jules, you only found out this was going on today?"

"The car is really overpacked. It's impossible to see anything and... Well, I guess Ben thought it would hurt me if I found out."

"Did it?" Mel asked, "Are you and Ben, like, OK?"

"I don't know," Julia said.

"You don't..." I sputtered, "Fine, Julia. My turn. What the hell happened this morning?"

Julia just stared down at the floor.

"Not specific enough," Mel said, "Those are the rules."

"Are we even still playing anymore?" Kelsey asked.

"Jules?" I asked again.

"I came up to just to talk, I swear," Julia said, still looking down, "But then... I don't know. I thought about everything you were doing with Sarah and Kelsey and I just... I'm sorry. I didn't want to hurt you. I was angry, and upset and (she swallowed this last word) jealous. I got carried away."

"I understand that. Maybe I even deserved it. But that was a little more than carried away," I said.

"You should take it as a compliment, honestly" Julia said, "I don't usually get that way... And you sure seemed to enjoy the... y'know. The ending."

"Well yeah, I mean..."

"So then we're ok?"

The scariest thing about that whole sequence wasn't how authentic it was or even that I heard a little sniffle at one point. No, the frightening thing was Julia had gone a whole speech without calling me 'dude' once. Which meant that she really meant it. She was feeling alone and a little scared and I guess knowing we were both in the same place made it all mostly better. And as she'd said, I really did enjoy some parts of it. Especially the ending.

"It's OK," I said, "More than OK. It's... I wanted you, too. I just got a little... I'm sorry too."

I crawled across the circle and hugged her. She hugged back.

"Dude, your... thing is poking me," Julia said and pushed me off.

I slid back to my seat, face red.

"So I just want to be clear," Mel said, "Raise your hand if you've fooled around with Ben this week."

Four hands went up.

"Ben, you don't have to raise your own hand."

"Sorry." I lowered my hand, self consciously.

"Wow, I have to say, that's impressive," Mel said, "I almost want to try it out now, just to see what I'm missing."

Sarah quickly shushed me.

"Three women in almost as many days," Mel said, "clearly there's something going on with you. And there's really only one possible explanation."

"Pretty sure he's just horny," Kelsey said. I smiled, but Mel gave everyone a somber stare before turning back to me.

"Trust me. I know these things," Mel said, "Clearly what we're dealing with here is what is known in the medical community as a 'magic penis.'"

I laughed, expecting the rest of the room to go along with me.

"I told you," Kelsey said, quietly.

"It would explain a lot," Sarah said.

"I must concur, dude," Julia said.

Whatever my feelings were on the subject, my cock was in full agreement. Though still tucked into my pants, he was clearly up for everyone to see. I'd been a on diet of ongoing orgasms for days now, yet I felt as pent up as I'd ever been. How was this still happening? It was like walking out of an all-you-can-eat buffet, Googling for places with good desserts.

"Don't question. Just enjoy," Mel told me. I'd been getting pretty good at that. "And with that grand reveal, I think it's time for the last round."

"I don't think I could do another hit," Sarah said, shifting her bottom in a way that suggested a specific kind of discomfort.